Unless you are blessed with genetics that let you eat fast food and drink soda for every meal and still look and feel great, nutrition will play a vital role in your success in endurance sports. But you have to choose the right nutrition plan to fit your needs.

I would say that Precision Nutrition and The Paleo Diet are the two hottest diet and nutrition plans in sports today. Precision Nutrition is widely known in strength training, MMA, and some other sports, while the Paleo Diet is all but a contractual obligation for anyone doing Crossfit.

The question is, what is the best choice for the endurance athlete?

In this article, I will compare both diets from this perspective and give you my opinion…

Precision Nutrition Pros and Cons

Precision Nutrition is a full-out eating system meant for everyone, but especially athletes. It was created by Dr. John Berardi, a former competitive bodybuilder. He knows his stuff and looks the part.

He refers to PN as a complete system for body transformation through nutrition. PN starts by covering everything you need to know about nutrition, then follows that with teaching you how to develop a custom nutrition plan unique to your physiology.

If you want to see proof that it works, just check out the before and after pictures from Precision Nutrition’s “Lean Eating” and “Scrawny to Brawny” coaching clients. It’s mind-blowing the body transformations I’ve been seeing year after year (I’m on the PN email list.)

I should point out, Precision Nutrition does have endurance athlete support. Chandra Crawford, 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist in XC skiing, and Eddie Hilger, US Masters National Champion cyclist, both provided their testimonials (and you can read their full stories at precisionnutrition.com.)

Precision Nutrition Pros:

Precision Nutrition is not restricting – it allows you to eat all types of foods. Your suggested food choices will vary depending on your current condition and your goals, and certain foods are only allowed at certain times of the day, but overall, PN doesn’t throw out entire groups of foods.

I really like that method, because it allows you some leeway in your own choices. PN is very customizable. It doesn’t matter what your body type is, what your preferred sports are, or if you’re a vegetarian – Precision Nutrition is still going to work for you.

But at the same time, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have any sort of food ideas or preferences. The course contains tons of recipes, everything from Super Shakes (i.e. smoothies) to Pecan-Crusted Seared Salmon. Surely something in there will inspire you.

What could be better? If Precision Nutrition gave you an entire cookbook! Well, they do! It is called Gourmet Nutrition and it comes free in the PN package. It is packed with about 200 recipes over as many pages. I’m a very picky eater and I still found plenty of meals I’d eat! Full pictures and instructions are included.

Worried that it is too complicated? Don’t be. The PN course guides you step-by-step like if you hired a nutritionist. The whole point is that you follow along and make their guidelines into a personalized plan for yourself.

It’s pretty simple – pick out the foods you want and then put them in your calendar, based on what you want to eat each day. Then just track your results (just like you would with your training plan) and adapt the program as necessary. (Yes, they give you advice for that, too.)

Precision Nutrition Cons:

There are going to be two barriers for anyone to get started on Precision Nutrition.

First, it costs $97. If you compare that to a normal diet book that costs about $9.32, PN is going to seem way too expensive.

Second, the huge binder can be intimidating. PN is easy to follow, but there is a lot to it. You can’t just memorize it in one afternoon and then be set to go. You have to put in the time to get the results.

Paleo Diet Pros and Cons

The Paleolithic diet is a modern diet, but it focuses on the diet of our ancestors, back in the Paleolithic era, before agriculture changed everything. It is part diet, part lifestyle.

Centered on commonly available modern foods, the “contemporary” Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

You most likely know this Paleolithic diet as The Paleo Diet, the book by Dr. Loren Cordain. Or perhaps The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. Or even The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.

For purposes of this comparison, I’ll generalize everything under the “paleolithic diet” umbrella.

Paleo Diet Pros:

My #1 diet philosophy has always been to eat natural foods, and the Paleo diet works great with this. It is based on healthy, natural, unrefined and unprocessed foods. This is a very simple change anyone can make to their diet, and it provides almost instant results. Seriously, switch from processed foods to natural foods, and you’ll probably feel better that same day!

Also, a Paleo approach can provide quick weight loss. I believe this is mainly due to the “low carb” aspect of the diet, but it could also be due to the lower caloric intake that usually occurs when you start eating more nutritionally-dense foods. Either way, many people (although not every single person) see quick, sometimes dramatic, results.

Believe it or not, some of these people are endurance athletes. Yep, some pro endurance athletes eat a Paleo diet. Take Jacob Fisher (pro triathlete,) Jonas Colting (Ultraman World Champion,) and Allison Mann (pro mountain biker,) for example. Most of these athletes blog about their diet if you want to see more from them.

Finally, if you want to get started on your own Paleo diet, the books are inexpensive. The books are around $9 and $15 at Amazon.com.

Paleo Diet Cons:

The Paleo diet isn’t perfect. It doesn’t work for everyone. The problem I see is that everyone is different, and using the same diet simply doesn’t work for everyone. For every pro triathlete that eats Paleo, I bet there are many who tried it and didn’t like it.

It’s too restricting – entire food groups are totally disallowed. All dairy, grains, and legumes (beans, peas and lentils) are forbidden. Fruit is sometimes frowned upon. I perform better without wheat or dairy, but I do like my oatmeal and legumes. Some people might be the opposite. Don’t restrict yourself blindly.

Did you notice most carbohydrate sources are disallowed? Well, “low carb” is not part of a cyclist’s vocabulary! I refuse to believe that a low-carb diet is the best choice for all endurance athletes.

Also considering food options, certain foods can be really expensive. If you can get high-quality meat, eggs, fresh fruits, and vegetables from a local farm, great. But if you go to a store like Whole Foods or a farmer’s market in the city, you might be spending your entire paycheck!

Last but not least, the whole “Paleo” idea is trendy right now. If something works, I don’t care if it’s trendy or a fad – but it can get annoying sometimes! Some people treat this diet like their religion. You say one thing about Paleo not being the best idea in the history of the world and you might be attacked as an anti-Paleo bigot!

My Recommendation: Precision Nutrition

While I actually like the Paleo Diet a lot, and we have The Paleo Diet for Athletes book created just for us, I have to give the nod to Precision Nutrition.

The Paleo Diet is kind of a one size fits all diet book for living a long, healthy life. It’s great for what it is, but when we’re talking individual sports performance, nothing beats Precision Nutrition. It goes into detail about what to eat and when, and it is based on the premise that different people will eat differently.

Add up the cost of the cookbooks and PN isn’t so much more expensive anymore.

To find out how Precision Nutrition can change your life and improve your performance, check out PrecisionNutrition.com.

Today’s question is about Kashi GoLean cereal, and where it fits in compared to oatmeal and your common cereals…

Hey I was wondering if you could review kashi GoLean cereal (hot or cold). The nutrition facts look good but I get confused when reading the list of ingredients, which is considerably lengthy. How does it compare to oatmeal or other cereals?

Thanks,
Kathy McGene

Hi Kathy,

Oh yes, Kashi GoLean. I’ve had quite a bit of the cold cereal. I really enjoyed it – nice and crunchy, not too sweet.

It does contain quite a few ingredients, but they are about as healthy and natural as it gets for cereal. It is mostly whole grains with a few additions. For sugar, you’ll see evaporated cane juice crystals and honey. For oil, they use expeller-pressed canola oil. And that’s it.

While no one is going to argue that those ingredients are more healthy than a bowl of spinach, they’re great for a bowl of cereal! The GoLean is way better than common cereal! And the only way to beat it would be to make your own steel cut oats.

Now, I haven’t tried the GoLean hot cereal, but it looks similar – long list of ingredients, but mostly whole grains, and no garbage.

On the other hand, I have tried the Kashi Heart to Heart instant oatmeal. It’s too sugary for me. I swear it was like spooning sugar straight into my mouth!

Why might that be? Well, it does contain twice the amount of sugar per serving as the GoLean cereal line!!

I had these single-serving cups you could add water to and cook in the microwave. Each cup was 200 calories, but there was very little oatmeal in it. But it was packed with 15g sugar, which is equivalent to having 4 tsp sugar in there! I think 1 tsp would have been plenty for me.

For my parting thoughts, I’ll tell you how I view cereal…

I usually place cereal into three ranks.

First is oatmeal, made with steel cut or rolled oats. That’s as natural and unprocessed as you can get using grains from the store.

Second, Kashi GoLean and some other cereals. They have the healthiest ingredients lists, but are still refined and processed compared to oatmeal. I don’t eat these very often any more, but if you need calories to fuel your training, go ahead and eat this stuff without worrying.

Third, the sugary kids stuff. I avoid all of it, even stuff like Raisin Bran, which is filled with added sugar and even high fructose corn syrup.

So if you avoid the sugary junk and stick with Kashi GoLean and oatmeal, you’ll be fine!

Today’s question is about Sqwincher, an electrolyte beverage used in the workplace…

Levi, At work we are given Sqwincher to drink to replace electrolytes. How does this compare to sport drinks and would it be a suitable replacement. They have a web site at www.sqwincher.com.

Thanks,
Finch Sqwinch

Hi Finch,

I’ve heard of Sqwincher – I have an uncle who got started drinking it for the same reason you did.

According to the website, “Sqwincher is one of the most cost-effective ways of increasing productivity.”

That statement may be true, but it seems a little overblown. Coffee probably increases productivity just as much, if not more! Unless everyone is dehydrated from working in the heat all day, in which case Sqwincher probably helps out.

Anyway, Sqwincher looks like a simple electrolyte drink. It would be most similar to Nuun.

Compared to a typical sports drink, there will be two main differences. The first, Sqwincher won’t have the sugar content. Second, it contains 50% less sodium but 50% more potassium than typical sports drinks.

It’s nothing special. It’s just an electrolyte beverage with a certain marketing angle aimed at the workplace.

Would it make a suitable replacement to sports drinks? Not really.

Because if you need to replace electrolytes from sweating, you’ll need lots of salt. You wouldn’t want to purchase something low in salt!

And if you need to replace electrolytes and sugar, stick with a true sports drink.

Today’s question is about using Wendy’s Chili for a post-ride recovery meal…

Hi Levi,
First I’d like to thank you for all of your great advice that you put out there for us. I have found some really helpful tips, like the Queen Helene cocoa butter.

I was wondering what you think of Wendy’s chili for a recovery meal after a 2 hr. XC mt. bike ride at 85% effort?

Pre ride- I eat a bowl of oatmeal w/ banana ,drink a FRS energy drink, take 300 mg beta alanine and drink water during the ride (about 1.5 bottles) (incase you needed that info to determine dietary needs post ride)

Many thanks and keep up the great job!!

Wendy Darling

Hey Wendy,

Thanks for the kind words, glad to have you on board!

Let me start by saying that chili is one of those foods that never appealed to me. If you stopped me on the street and asked me what was in chili, I’d probably say it’s tomato soup with beans in it. That would be my best guess! So I can’t really speak from experience, but I looked at the Wendy’s menu to see what’s up…

From the Wendy’s Menu

Here are the main Nutrition Facts I pulled up:

Nutrition Facts

Calories 310
Total Fat 9g
Saturated Fat 3.5g
Cholesterol 60mg
Sodium 1330mg
Carbohydrates 31g
Fiber 10g
Sugars 10g
Protein 26g

And the chili ingredients:

Ingredients:

Large Chili
Water, Chili Base (tomatoes, salt, citric acid, calcium chloride), Ground Beef, Vegetable Mix (onions, celery, green peppers), Chili Beans (beans, water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, natural flavorings, onion powder, calcium chloride), Kidney Beans (kidney beans, water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, natural flavorings, onion powder, calcium chloride, disodium EDTA [preservative]), Chili Seasoning (sugar, salt, modified corn starch, chili pepper, onion powder, spices, dextrose, garlic powder, citric acid, disodium inosinate & guanylate, xanthan gum, autolyzed yeast extract, soybean oil, caramel color, extractives of paprika, malic acid, red 40, natural and artificial flavor, silicon dioxide [anticaking agent]).

Hot Chili seasoning
Water, Corn Syrup, Salt, Distilled Vinegar, Natural Flavors, Xanthan Gum, Caramel Color.

Saltine Crackers
Enriched Flour (wheat flour, niacinamide, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1], riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), Soybean Oil (contains TBHQ for freshness), Salt, Contains 2% or less of: Corn Syrup, Leavening (baking soda, yeast), Soy Lecithin. CONTAINS: SOY, WHEAT

Cheddar Cheese, shredded
Cultured Pasteurized Milk, Salt, Enzymes, Artificial Color, Potato Starch and Powdered Cellulose (to prevent caking), Natamycin (natural mold inhibitor). CONTAINS: MILK.

Chili Analysis

The first thing that popped into my mind is that it’s probably loaded with salt and preservatives (fast food is notorious for this.) Sure enough, it is. For a large chili, there’s 1330mg sodium. I could cut you some slack since you’re out there sweating and only drinking water, but still, that’s a lot of sodium. Think about it this way – if you drank 1.5 bottles of Accelerade during the ride and then had a bottle of Endurox R4 as your recovery drink, that is around 600-700mg sodium total!

And then looking through the ingredients, there are quite a few preservatives and colorings in there. Not that sports drinks are any better, but I gotta point it out for general health reasons.

Next up, calories. 310 calories. That’s good. Right around 300 is usually a good choice post-ride.

Now, 31g carbs, 26g protein, and 9g fat. This is more like a well-balanced meal than a post-ride recovery meal. That can still work just fine, unless you are in the middle of a stage race or something. Like if you were doing tough, 2 hour XC rides every day, I’d be worried about getting more carbs in your recovery meal. But on a more realistic training schedule, you can probably replenish your glycogen stores thanks to your normal meals, especially if you eat oatmeal.

In the end, chili doesn’t follow the standard recovery meal protocol, but I think it would be a suitable recovery meal for some people, just not for everyone. If you like it, and it likes you, try it out. Just watch your energy levels. If your training load increases and your energy levels are decreasing, try more post-ride carbs. Preferably something with less fiber, too.

This chili would probably be a pretty good post-workout meal for the off-season, but definitely not my top choice for a high-carb recovery meal during regular training. And you can make your own decision on the sodium and preservatives issue.

Anyone else try Wendy’s chili? Or maybe make your own chili for post-ride meals?

Today’s question is about whether or not V8 Juice could be used as a post-ride recovery drink…

Hi Coach, I wonder if you have ever researched the effects of “Low Sodium” V-8 juice for recovery purposes… and/or making a diluted version of it to carry for rides… thanks…

- Darth V8er

Hi Darth,

I should really start by answering with a quick “no.”

Why? Because I tried V8 before (many years ago) and absolutely hated it. Tomato juice does not appeal to me at all. So I haven’t looked into V8 for any sort of purpose.

But we can look at it now and I’ll give you my opinion on using V8 as a recovery drink…

Nutrition facts per 8oz serving:

Calories 50
Total Fat 0g
Sat. Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 140mg
Potassium 820mg
Total Carb. 10g
Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 8g
Protein 2g

% Daily Values
Vitamin A 40%
Vitamin C 120%
Calcium 2%
Iron 2%

And the ingredients:

Tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, beets, watercress, spinach, carrots, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, salt.

So…

I gotta say, I’m not impressed. Other than getting two servings of vegetables, I don’t see any benefit to V8.

Vegetables are great, but I recommend eating real vegetables in your diet instead of drinking V8. And timing vegetable intake after a ride is kind of pointless.

For post-ride recovery, it’s more important to take in calories in the form of carbohydrates and protein so you can refuel your glycogen stores and rebuild your muscles.

V8 is quite low on carbs and protein, the main components of a recovery drink. It’s relatively low on calories, too. It does contain sodium and potassium, but there are other electrolytes you need, so I wouldn’t count on V8 for your electrolytes, either.

In the end, if you’re one to need a recovery drink, you need the carbs and protein, the calories, and plenty of electrolytes. V8 just doesn’t have that. It’s no substitute for Endurox R4, Hammer Recoverite, etc.

If you don’t need a recovery drink, drink water and eat a sandwich or something. You’ll be fine.

As for during-ride use… I can’t imagine using diluted V8 during exercise. It seems like that would be really disgusting. But even if it were tasty, it’s low in sugar, and it contains a decent amount of fiber. Two of the worst qualities for a sports drink!

If you enjoy V8, I’d just drink it as a snack, and stick with sports drinks or more common sports drink substitutes for workout and recovery beverages.